The claimed invention relates to stackable packing trays designed for receipt of fragile or crushable articles such as fruit, vegetables and the like, and more particularly to a tray with novel means for maximizing the number of articles that can be packed in the tray. More particularly the claimed invention is directed to the novel location of post support means on said tray in an area between adjoining pockets thereby increasing the number of articles that can be stored in a given tray area. Posts are also molded into the trays to interact with these supports means in successive layers of trays to transmit vertical stacking forces through an area of the tray not occupied by stored articles, thus avoiding damage to these articles.
Prior to the present invention, packing trays for fragile articles such as fruit or vegetables were generally of the type wherein pockets had to be spaced apart a substantial distance in order to allow the placement of posts and/or support means in open areas between the pockets. Trays of this general type are shown in Friday U.S. Pat No. 3,245,570; Grant U.S. Pat. No. 2,656,945; and Friday U.S. Pat. No. 2,351,754. A substantial area on each of these prior art trays is occupied by posts and post support means which reduces the area available for pockets containing the stored articles. Another disadvantage of the prior art trays is the fact that vertical stacking forces are transmitted through the bottom of the pockets containing the stored article. When several of these prior art trays are stacked on top of each other these vertical forces exerted on the pocket bottom tend to dimple the pocket resulting in damage to the articles stored in the pockets.
Various attempts have been made to solve the problems of damage to stored articles inherent in these prior art trays including the use of double or dual posts which protrude both upwardly or downwardly from the plane of the tray with articles stored in the pockets between the posts. Such an arrangement is illustrated in DeReamer U.S. Pat. No. 2,236,675 but this approach has the disadvantage of substantially reducing the area on the tray which can be used for storage of articles.